Samsung Shows Off Multiscreen Tech on Smart TVs, Adds Amazon App

They say that two screens are better than one. Well Samsung’s Free the TV Challenge III, “Second Screen Storytellers” has challenged film-makers to come up with creative ways to take advantage of two screens in the same film. The challenge is encouraged as a way to get film makers thinking of ways to utilize content on two screens. That includes two TV screens at once, or a TV screen and a mobile device working together.

We watched a screening of the five finalists short films, and were impressed with how each finalist has managed to originally incorporate second screen content into their films. For example, one finalist uses a second screen to simultaneously introduce another character and offer a background story for them, while another uses the second screen in a kind of video game fashion – showing mapping data for the characters on the main screen.

According to Eric Anderson, Vice President, Digital Content and Product Solutions at Samsung Consumer Electronic, ultimately, the goal of the second screen content is not to take away from the main screen, but to enhance it with additional visuals and information. To that effect, Samsung believes that there is a big future for multi-screen viewing experiences. As a matter of fact, they believe in it so much that on Friday, one of the films will take home a $300,000 grand-prize for winning the competition. The winner will be announced as part of the New York television Festival’s Digital Day events at 92YTribeca. Samsung also says that they have plans to utilize multi-screen technology into their Smart TVs.

Samsung also announced on Wednesday that Amazon Instant is now available on their 2012 Samsung Smart TVs as a Samsung App. That means that Samsung Smart TV owners now have access more than 30,000 titles on Prime Instant Video, as well as more than 140,000 movies and TV episodes to rent or buy.